Isaiah 10:5-19 - Judgment On Assyria's Arrogance

⁵ Ho! Assyrian, the rod of my wrath, the instrument of my punishment! ⁶ I will send him against a nation of wrongdoers, and against the people of my wrath I will give him orders, to take their wealth in war, crushing them down like the dust in the streets. ⁷ But this is not what is in his mind, and this is not his design; but his purpose is destruction, and the cutting off of more and more nations. ⁸ For he says, Are not all my captains kings? ⁹ Will not the fate of Calno be like that of Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus? ¹⁰ As my hand has come on the kingdoms of the images, whose pictured images were more in number than those of Jerusalem and Samaria; ¹¹ So, as I have done to Samaria and her images, I will do to Jerusalem and her images.

¹² For this cause it will be that, when the purpose of the Lord against Mount Zion and Jerusalem is complete, I will send punishment on the pride of the heart of the king of Assyria, and on the glory of his uplifted eyes. ¹³ For he has said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my knowledge, for I am wise: and I have taken away the limits of the peoples' lands, and the stores of their wealth have become mine; and I have made towns low in the dust, sending destruction on those living in them; ¹⁴ And I have put my hands on the wealth of the peoples, as on the place where a bird has put her eggs; and as a man may take the eggs from which a bird has gone, so I have taken all the earth for myself: and not a wing was moved, and not a mouth gave out a sound.

¹⁵ Will the axe say high-sounding words against him who is using it, or the blade be full of pride against him who is cutting with it? As if a rod had the power of shaking him who is using it, or as if a stick might take up him who is not wood. ¹⁶ For this cause the Lord, the Lord of armies, will make his fat become wasted; and in his inner parts a fire will be lighted like a burning flame. ¹⁷ And the light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: wasting and burning up his thorns in one day. ¹⁸ And he will put an end to the glory of his woods and of his planted fields, soul and body together; and it will be as when a man is wasted by disease. ¹⁹ And the rest of the trees of his wood will be small in number, so that a child may put them down in writing.